Denmark -- Social life and customs; Ribe (Denmark)
And I saw the King’s men take heart and the heathen turn and flee from
the shore that was strewn with their slain, while the sea ran red with
blood. And the King and his men rested their swords and knelt upon
the battlefield as the moon rose over it, and sang a Te Deum to their
God for having delivered them and crushed the power of the Evil One;
for of the Fiend and of his idols there was an end in the land, then
and forevermore. And I knew that I had seen in my dream the battle
of Lyndanissa that won all Esthland for the Christians’ God by King
Valdemar’s sword, and gave to Denmark its Dannebrog, oldest of flags
among nations.
[Illustration: “THE KING AND HIS MEN KNELT UPON THE BATTLEFIELD.”]
Once more did darkness fall, and I saw the old King betrayed by night
in his tent, in the midst of peace, by his guest, the Black Count
Henrik of Schwerin, who hated him, and, with Dagmar’s son, brought,
bound and gagged, “in great haste and fear,” to the traitor’s strong
tower on the Elbe. I saw them lying in chains, thirty moons and more
in the dark dungeons, while Denmark’s foes rose on every side and
overwhelmed its armies that had lost hope with their leader. I saw the
old marshal, the King’s kinsman and friend, brought wounded and chained
to his cell after the battle; and the aged King bowed his head while
his enemies mocked him. And I saw the prince with Dagmar’s blue eyes
and fair locks comfort him in his sorrow and defeat. And then I saw the
Danish women, matron and maid, in the proud castle and in the peasant’s
hut, bring their gold and their gems, their rings and their jewels
and their silver, for their King’s ransom; and once more the Old Town
echoed with cries of gladness and joy as when Dagmar came; but this
time he rode alone, and stricken and sore.
[Illustration: DANISH WOMEN RANSOMED THEIR KING.]
[Illustration: “COMFORTED THE KING IN SORROW AND DEFEAT.”]
Once again in my dreams I saw the gates of the tower swing wide and
a mighty army march forth to meet the German traitors in battle, to
avenge their King. And I saw the great barren where the bones of the
fairest knights in all the North lay bleaching in many a summer’s sun
from that day, while all the Danish land mourned. I saw the day all but
won when the base Holsteiners turned their arms against their Danish
allies, and I beheld the sun set in defeat and disaster and the King
borne, wounded and beaten, from the field, his army destroyed, his wars
ended.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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